What Do You Mean Radiohead Don't Do Jazz?
Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 4:39PM With the exciting news of Radiohead's 8th studio album on the horizon (released saturday) I thought it'd be a great opportunity to include a feature on one of my personal favourite Radiohead tracks which includes the English trumpet legend Humphrey Lyttelton, otherwise known as 'Humph' and his band. The piece is called 'Life In Glass Houses' which is from the 'Amnesiac' album and offers one of the most atmospheric, beautiful approaches to jazz I've ever heard. Humph's solos aswell as Pete Strange' fantastic trombone introduction sit perfectly under radioheads creepy, ambient composition, and Jimmy Hasting's fast scalic and arpreggiated sequences on the clarinet add a sense of the improvised to the piece. On a radio 4 documentary which paid tribute to Humph after his sad death in 2008, an interviewer talks to Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead, who conveys that neither Humphrey lyttleton's band nor the pieces origional composers (Radiohead) knew what to do with the song. So the recording process was an 8 or 9 hour long slog to get to the finished article.
Theres a great article with a full interview with Humphrey Lyttelton on his take on the piece at Radiohead fansite ateaseweb (link below)
http://www.ateaseweb.com/2008/04/25/humphrey-lyttelton-died-aged-86/
The combination of this superb jazz sound with radiohead's distinctive style makes for an inspiring cocktail of musical greats!
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CHECK OUT MY WRITE-UP ON RADIOHEAD'S INCREDIBLE LEVEL ON INDEPENDENCE:
http://anti-est.blogspot.com/2011/04/gods-of-independence-radiohead.html